Abstract

The Purpose of this study was to explore and describe the lived experience of the poor solitary elder by eliciting verbal descriptions of their experiences. The phenomenological approach in qualitative studies is used to serve this purpose. Colaizzi's method is used for phenomenological analysis of the data in this study. which were collected from 10 poor solitary elders. They were asked open ended and descriptive questions in order to get them to talk about their experiences in their own terms. Interviews were tape recorded and transcribed verbatim. From the protocols, 182 significant statements about lived experience were organized and then grouped into 4 theme clusters. The major themes that emerged from the analysis were 'Awareness of Power Declining'. 'Emotional Disturbances of The Self'. 'Love and Hatred to Family', 'Trying to Accept Life'. The result of this study showed that the poor solitary elder needed nursing care based on a deep understanding of their lived experiences in their everyday life. From this study of essential themes for understanding the poor solitary elder, Nurses and health workers must develop supportive programs for helping the poor solitary elder.